[Effects of alcohol on the blood]

Acute alcohol intoxication, particularly in chronic alcohol abusers, leads to qualitative and quantitative changes in all three hemopoietic systems. In addition to a hemolytic effect through various possible mechanisms, functional abnormalities of granulocytes, immunocytes and marcophages and qualitative anomalies of platelets, alcohol exerts a toxic effect on cell production which cannot, or can only partially, be prevented by correction of the frequently demonstrable folic acid deficiency.